Clare Calvet's Weekend Reading:

Mark Mills was born in Geneva and grew up in Sussex and studied history and art at Cambridge University. He lives in Oxford with his family.

Spies, espionage and the clandestine world of Tom Nash, a former British Secret Intelligence Service operative. He has left a turbulent career at the Secret Intelligence Service and the horrors of the past. A year after the Bolshevik coup, with the Red Terror in full swing, the woman he loved was arrested. A daring rescue attempt was botched after he was betrayed and she was executed, carrying his unborn child. On the run, with a price on his head, Tom exacted deadly revenge against the traitor of the rescue mission.

Now, it is 1935,and he is now living in the Cote D'Azur - to be precise, the less salubrious le Rayol - a haven for artists, expats and refugees. In Europe disruption is brewing and then his dog Hector disappears, suspicious characters appear at his local hotel and a midnight assassin has broken into his home. Nash realises that his past is catching up with him. But who has betrayed him?

Engaging characters, as he mixes pre-WW2 history and fiction. A real page turner, perfect for a weekend read.

Possibly not in the same literary genre of espionage thrillers such as Simon Mawer, Alan Furst or Robert Harris - however, Mill's metier is war history.

Keeps you guessing!

Publisher Harper Collins

Paperback

$29.99

pages 420

DETECTIVE PIGGOTT'S CASEBOOK - The Tales of Murder, Madness and the Rise of Forensic Science

by Kevin Morgan

Victorian Librarian, historian and author Kevin Morgan has followed up Gun Alley with his latest casebook, presenting the riveting inside facts of Detective Frederick Piggott. This covers nine of the most important police investigations in Victoria in the early 20th century. They are based solely on the personal papers and scrapbooks of Piggott's macabre documentation and covering almost 50 years. Morgan tracked down Piggott's grandson Eric Beissell now 84 years old, who had hidden them away for posterity. Now, these papers are at the State Library of Victoria and most likely document the birth of forensic science in Australia.